reVISIONS

If local filmmaker J.P. Allen’s 2014 Love and Demons proved that nobody hates screenwriters more than another screenwriter, then his new film reVISIONS goes further inward, continuing his obsession with screenwriting, romance, and possibly himself. Jim (Allen) is a screenwriter struggling with the crumbling of his relationship with Angela (Bekka Fink), and also with his difficulties writing a screenplay about the crumbling of that relationship. Much like the anthropomorphized demons haunting the lovers in Allen’s previous film, here he’s harangued by personified versions of his Inner Critic (Chris Pflueger), the Screenplay (Lucia Frangione), the First Draft of the Screenplay (Michelle Drexler), and an Action Script (Joseph Estlack) that won’t take “this isn’t about you” for an answer. Also popping up is a Shyamalan-level rebuke to critics, particularly feminist critics, in the form of the catsuit-clad Blah Blah Lady (played by Ashley Rain Tuner). Of a piece with Love and Demons, but never quite as emotionally satisfying as that film, reVISIONS also functions as an east-of-Twin-Peaks travelogue of San Francisco, particularly the more literarily trendy areas of North Beach. (Dig that Jack Kerouac street sign sneaking into the corner of the frame while Jim writes!) And to those watching the film outside of San Francisco, reVISIONS isn’t exaggerating — most of our local coffeehouses really do play their music that fucking loud.